It's the first Friday of February, so that means you get an update from me! I like to do these as a scheduled check-in instead of spamming you with all the neat things that happen to me in a month, but if you prefer following along with my projects in real-time, I'm pretty active on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/EleanorKonik) these days. ## Reading My big reading project for January was that I finally finished [Perhaps the Stars](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781466858770/perhapsthestars) by Ada Palmer. It's the final book of the _Terra Ignota_ series, and Ada Palmer is an incredibly thought-provoking author with some really complex ideas: in "real life" she's a Renaissance scholar at the History of Chicago. If you like complicated, inspiring fiction with a lot to say about potential futures, I highly recommend the series. In other recommendations, I really enjoy the Resident Contrarian, whose piece on [the artist / craftsmen divide](https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/on-the-artistcraftsman-divide) I wish I'd stumbled across before I wrote the [Art edition](https://eleanorkonik.com/art/) %% ( [[2022-01-17 Art (DRAFT)]] ) %% — he speaks to some things I was thinking about when I said: > [The ancient Egyptians didn't have a word for 'art.'](https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-egyptian-statues-broken-noses) They considered sculptures and statues to be religious _tools_. He also has a nice piece on [marriage](https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/unsolicited-advice-on-the-institute) that made me smile; it caught my eye because it was a reaction piece to the wedding of a blogger we both follow; Scott Alexander, who I've linked to before — mostly recently in the [bugs edition](https://eleanorkonik.com/bugs/) %% ( [[2022-01-03 Bugs (DRAFT)]] ) %%; he was how I found out about weird ways parasitic worms can kill someone. ## Viral Traffic The biggest news this month was that one of my articles ([Yet Another Hot Take on "Folders vs Tags"](https://eleanorkonik.com/yet-another-hot-take-on-folders-versus-tags/) %% ( [[2021-09-24 Yet Another Hot Take on “Folders vs Tags”]] ) %%) got mentioned by a couple of popular newsletters. It wound up hitting the front page of a "social news website" / aggregator — the resultant traffic actually took down my website for a few hours, sorry! I'm back up and running, but as part of that process, I've moved most of the articles that used to live at eleanorkonik.com over to either - the Iceberg, for worldbuilding, history & reviews. I tagged them as [articles](https://eleanorkonik.com/tag/article/)  and [reviews](https://eleanorkonik.com/tag/review) if you want to browse the "new" content — my favorite is this piece on the history of [female judges as rulers](https://eleanorkonik.com/female-judges-deborah-andamana/) %% ( [[2020-06-20 Female Judges as Rulers]] ) %%. - The Obsidian Roundup, where I write about notetaking & productivity. My most recent article was about how [I dislike the language of apps being a Second Brain](https://eleanorkonik.com/ite-not-second-brain/). I'm still finalizing the migration — setting up redirects is a surprisingly tricky problem when you're using a static site — but hopefully it'll all be done by this time next month. ## Lessons on Leadership & Failure My newsletter drip campaign / deep dive into [the history of food](https://refind.com/EleanorKonik/the-history-of-food) did pretty well, so Refind ([here's an affiliate link](https://refind.com/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=barter&utm_campaign=Mn6vY1aQFu5DtmSrH9P7sg)) invited me to do another one, this time about some lessons we can learn from obscure leaders in history. It's less Caesar & George Washington, more Brasidas & Shajar al-Durr. Don't know who they are? [Go find out](https://refind.com/EleanorKonik/lessons-on-leadership-and-failure)! ## Stories I also wrote a bunch here at the Iceberg! This month's flash fiction was [The Magic of Marsh Protection](https://eleanorkonik.com/the-magic-of-marsh-protection/) %% ( [[2022-01-05 The Magic of Marsh Protection (FF) (DRAFT)]] ) %%, which is about an indigenous protector of the rainforest who fights to keep a dangerous invasive species from destroying his homeland. The afterword for [Acumen](https://eleanorkonik.com/acumen/) %% ( [[2022-01-12 Acumen]] ) %% touched on how research into iconoclasm, idolatry, and religious icons supports the underlying complexities of my worldbuilding — the story itself is about the consequences of _not_ creating the sacred idols a particular god commanded his people to make. [Stint](https://eleanorkonik.com/stint/) %% ( [[2022-01-19 Stint]] ) %% continues the storyline about a young mage coming of age in a society that treats mages like crap, and how the bureaucracy that exists to protect her uses tough love to keep her safe. Lastly, [Wither](https://eleanorkonik.com/wither/) %% ( [[2022-01-26 Wither]] ) %% is the first poem published on the Iceberg; it's about a woman's refusal to commit suicide after her abusive husband dies. The afterword explores the role of human sacrifice throughout history. ## Consultation In other exciting news, as part of my exploration of my options for employment in the fall — when I'm scheduled to go back into the classroom — I've set up a [Consulting Calendar](https://eleanorkonik.com/consult/), and I've already had the opportunity to help a few people optimize their setups for writing, which has been really exciting. ## Comments There were some great comments on January issues of the newsletter, especially for the Jewelry edition. If you want to learn more about Neanderthal art and wearable German coins, [join the conversation](https://eleanorkonik.com/jewelry/#cove) %% ( [[2022-01-31 Jewelry]] ) %%. We also discussed [how to cook with bison heart & liver](https://eleanorkonik.com/vagrant/#cove) and [Egyptian art](https://eleanorkonik.com/art/#cove). ## Notes Everyone is welcome to check out the rest of [my public notes](https://publish.obsidian.md/eleanorkonik/00+Meta/03+Structure/Welcome), but my complete setup is available to paid subscribers. The plain text notes, when opened with a program like [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/), show how the stories I write connect with one another and my research. Until next time, adieu.